A. Field of the Invention
This invention generally relates to apparatuses and methods for spreading salt, or the like, onto road surfaces.
B. Description of Related Art
Spreaders are known devices used to spread salt, sand, anti-icing fluids or other such materials onto to road surfaces to treat the road surfaces for snow and ice. It is well known to provide smaller spreaders which have a hopper that may be selectively mounted into the bed of pickup trucks. Such spreaders are known as insert hopper spreaders. It is also known to provide larger spreaders which have hoppers that are permanently or semi-permanently mounted to large over-the-road trucks such as those used in municipalities and on highways and the like.
The present invention is initially designed for the insert hopper spreaders, although some of its features are widely applicable to spreaders in general.